Chapter 6 Magic Is Hard

Middle of the night. It was dark, and Lucas walked deeper into the woods, hoping he was going home.

"Shit." Lucas cursed, knowing he was lost.

The unpredictable explosion caused by the attack Lucas had used had completely destroyed the trail Lucas had planned to follow to get back home.

"We should have asked those adventurers for directions home." Lucas clutched his head in frustration. But the thought of the adventurers gave him back his anxiety.

"But why were they being so careful around me." Lucas paused in thought. Putting his hand to his forehead, he realized that there was no trace of the tar that had been created by the explosion. Suddenly he remembered the novel and understood:

"It was mana in physical form." Lucas froze in place, his eyes wide open. He wondered why his mana had materialized and came to two conclusions: either his reincarnation had turned him into a demon or a deity, or Lucas was already a deity, but it wasn't emphasized in the novel. Both versions would explain why Lucas's magical power was so unstable and enhanced.

Lucas raised his hand and created a tiny ball of fire on his palm, holding it there until it began to burn his palm. It reminded him that the flames from the burning forest hadn't hurt him.

"Demons and deities in the novel could only be harmed by hell or divine mana."

Clenching his fist, still holding the fireball, he felt its flesh sizzle, and Lucas smiled. Eventually, when the fireball burned his palm to the bone, Lucas withdrew it. As soon as the fireball was gone, Lucas's wound began to heal without even requiring a healing spell. The blackened flesh regained its normal color, and the skin quickly regenerated.

"This was unplanned. But...." Lucas said as he clenched his fist a few times to check if he felt pain. There was no pain, as there was no wound.

"I can't say I mind having this power." Lucas grinned widely, his eyes shining brightly in the darkness like a cat's.

"I wonder, though... Am I a demon like King Tom?"

Lucas knew full well what story the novel had planned for him, but he could not have predicted that the body he had reincarnated into was far from that of a demon or a god. Since Lucas's race was never mentioned in the novel, even the biggest fan would never have guessed.

"I don't think I'll get a chance to ask him." Lucas laughed at the thought.

Meanwhile, the adventurers' guild had already started preparing for a new threat: Lucas. All they knew was that Lucas possessed an indescribably powerful mana that could materialize as a demon, but that mana worked against the demon.

Upon hearing the news, King Tom beams down to the adventurer's guild and prepares for battle. However, when he realized that the entity nicknamed "Angel" had not appeared to the public, he decided that he needed to investigate what he had first. Angel's resin, which has been magically preserved to prevent it from deteriorating with time,

"This mana..." Tom said, looking at the sample in his test tube.

"Yes?" Maril, the adventurer's guild master, asked as she watched the worried demon.

"Poisonous." Tom said as he placed the test tube on the table. Then he turned and took a good look at Sebastian and Jarv. The adventurers who had brought this strange combination of mana into the guild

The adventurers stood frozen like warriors, afraid to blink. In front of them was the ruler of the entire Elemental Kingdom, and they had never met anyone from the royal family. They were afraid to do anything that might offend him.

"Where did you see that creature?" "What did it look like?" Tom asked with a gentle smile, to show that he wasn't dangerous.

"T-The forest." Jarv replied with a stutter.

"Y-Yes. "There was an explosion in the forest; we found a naked guy in the middle of it." Sebastian added.

Tom turned to Maril and wondered what they should do with this creature. From what Tom sensed in Lucas' mana, this one was acting as a poison to the demon race. Just getting close to this strange resin made Tom's stomach turn up.

"Maril... about this creature..." Tom said, using the magical flame to destroy the test tube with the resin in it.

"Don't tell anyone." Tom commanded.

"W-what?" Maril blinks in confusion. Unable to believe her ears, she repeated the question.

"Excuse me, what did you say?" She asked, staring at Tom shakily.

Tom turned away from everyone, biting his nails. He'd never broken an old bad habit since he was a mere mortal.

"No one must ever know that there is a being who can fight demons."

"Even more so... that entity is poisonous to us."Tom said, thinking about the future of the Elemental Kingdom.

He knew that if news reached the ears of the Holy Kingdom's rulers of a being who could defeat demons, there would be war.

What he didn't know was that more than anything else, the angel hated the Holy Kingdom.

Meanwhile, an angel named Lucas got tired of looking for a way home and decided to experiment with magic. Gathering airmana in his legs, he made a leap that carried him high into the sky. It was a badly calculated move because not only had Lucas not yet learned to use mana, but his magic was too strong.

"Whoa. "Don't look down." Lucas yelled to himself as he flew upwards. He felt a refreshing coolness as he flew through the clouds and humidity.

Lucas kept flying upwards and felt that, for a moment, everything froze; he reached the top of the jump. He was high above the clouds, and to his eyes, in the darkness of the night, the city of lamps looked like a shining ant's nest.

"Sh-shit..." Lucas said looking around. The view was stunning, but the beauty meant nothing to him. He didn't know if he would survive if he fell from that height.

"'SHIT SHIT SHIT FUCKING SHIT!" Lucas screamed at the top of his lungs, falling backwards. In that moment, he knew he had messed up. Normally, a man would surrender to fate, but Lucas had something that would help him survive the fall.

"W-Wind magic..." Lucas said to himself in thought.

"If I create an air barrier... Lucas said, and under the stress, his mana began to become uncontrollable. It began to emit a bright light, and his eyes glowed a bright red.

"N-Not now..." Black tar began to run down his face, and a stabbing pain appeared in his back. The wind around him began to create a hurricane instead of a barrier. Fortunately, he was far away from the city or the human population.

*Lucas hit the sand like a thunderclap, and a huge ball of dust formed around him. The surrounding area was deserted, and the Elemental Kingdom's skyscrapers could be seen in the distance.

"Sh-shit." Lucas said, panting and catching his breath.